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DIY, which means Do It Yourself, is quite popular in UK. Lots of stores and supermarkets sell DIY things. TV programmes show people how to DIY.

English people like DIY. There is a saying in UK----“As Englishman’s home is his castle”. Huge number of people spend their holidays making their homes beautiful “castles”. If there is anything that needs fixing around their homes, such as painting the walls or putting in a new shower, they will do the jobs themselves. They share DIY experience with their friends. More and more people have discovered the joy of DIY. Sometimes people also DIY for saving money. With the economic downturn at present, many people can not afford a big house. They are looking at how they can make their house better without spending a lot of money. It is not surprising that DIY is so popular.

DIY can be difficult. There is a huge market for DIY furniture which people need to get together themselves with a few basic tools. However, people often find it not easy to build a piece of furniture because they can’t understand the instructions. Sometimes the instructions are simple and clear, but the furniture itself is difficult to build. One thing is for sure, though most DIY projects are started with the best intentions. Many of them may not get finished. DIY can also be dangerous. For example, anything electrical should be done by a professional worker. Unluckily, many people don’t care about this warning and put themselves in danger. It is reported that in just one year over 230,000 people were hurt while doing DIY in UK, including 41,000 who fell off ladders.

Therefore , DIY can bring us fun and help us save money, but it is not always as easy as it is thought to be if we bite off more than we can chew. Maybe factories should make products that are easier and safer for us to DIY.

1.How do many English people spend their hoildays to the passage?

A. Making their homes beautiful.

B. Visiting their friends.

C. Travelling all over the world

D. Making a lot of money

2.Why do English people like DIY?

A. Many stores sell DIY things.

B. DIY can bring them fun.

C. TV programmes teach them to DIY

D. All DIY projects are easy.

3.What can we learn from the passage?

A. DIY is a waste of money.

B. it is always difficult to DIY.

C. We should be careful while doing DIY.

D. It is very safe for us to DIY.

4.In the passage, “we bite off more than we can chew” probably means      .

A. We can eat everything we like.

B. We should do something difficult.

C. We do something that is too difficult.

D. We eat too much food that is not safe.

 

On June 26, 2000, two scientists, called Francis Collins and Craig Venter, told the world that they could read the whole “map” of the human body: DNA. DNA is something that everybody has, and it tells the body what to do. DNA is the reason that we look like our mother and father, because we get some of their DNA to make our own.

People have been trying to understand the human body for a long time. In 1860, Gregor Mendel discovered a special reason why we look the same as other people in our family. It is because of small things named “genes” in our body. In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick made another discovery and found out that those small parts are real messages written in the DNA with a special language.

In 1961, Marshall Nirenberg and Johann Matthaci found a message in DNA showing how DNA tells the cell（细胞）to build its parts. Scientists have now found all the words in the DNA map, but we still do not understand what they all do. By understanding what just one “word”   means, we can help save more people from several illnesses.

Most people hope that this will help make better medicine and help sick people. Other people worry that when people begin to know more words and find out lots of other information, we might use it in a wrong way, just to make people more attractive, or stop sick people from getting jobs. Man would have to meet a lot of trouble if DNA technic wasn’t limited（限制）in use.

1.When did we first know why we look like other people m our family?

A．In 1860           B．In 1953           C．In 1961           D．In 2000

2.What does the underlined word “ genes” mean?

A. The “map” of DNA.                B. A special language.

C. Small parts of DNA.                D. DNA

3.What did the two scientists first discover in 1961 ?

A. The “map” of DNA.               B. A new illness.

C. The language of DNA.              D. A message of DNA.

4.What can we do if we understand some “ words” of the language inside the body

A．Make people get new jobs.

B．Make medicine for illnesses.

C．Make maps of human.

D．Make people less attractive.

5.What do people think about this work’?

A．It can cause good or bad results.

B．It can cause only good results.

C．It can cause good results but won’t work.

D．It can cause only bad results.